Mark Lenz: Lincoln's dilemmas at Adrian's library

Now, 150 years after Lenawee County's Haviland and the White House's Lincoln confronted the legality of slavery — and just days after South Africa's Mandela's passing from his lifetime fight for equality and unity — an amazing traveling exhibit comes to Adrian Public Library.

"Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War" opened Friday. It's a milestone for the downtown library.

It was the first National Endowment for the Humanities grant project that former library director Carol Souchock said she'd ever applied for, and new library director Shirley Ehnis said the chance to host it was unique. "With the 150th anniversary of the Civil War — this year, last year and next year — the opportunity to have a display like this is once in a lifetime," Ehnis said. "And because it was put together by the American Library Association and the National Constitution Center, we knew that it would be quality information and a museum-quality display. We wanted to offer it here to Adrian and Lenawee County."

An opening reception is from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday. Tom Thiery's Art Prize painting of Gettysburg hangs next to the exhibit, and related events go on through January.

The exhibit and other activities are striking, but the accomplishment is making real the constitutional dilemmas Lincoln faced:

— How does a president respond when one-third of his states secede? The doctrines of "states' rights" and the 10th Amendment had been asserted in tariff disputes even before Lincoln enforced the doctrine of united states. Today, still, the boundary between state and federal rights comes up in such issues as medical marijuana, who may define marriage, Congress seeking to close National Guard bases and more.

— What should be done when the Constitution and courts support positions that essentially create "a house divided"? Such was the case after the Dred Scott decision of 1857 upheld slavery in America, a nation supposedly founded on the belief "that all men are created equal." Lincoln used the Civil War to circumvent the Scott ruling with the Emancipation Proclamation, but also worked behind the scenes to win passage of the then-controversial 13th Amendment.

— War broke out, riots flared and southern sympathizers tried to encourage Union troops to desert. Lincoln temporarily suspended habeas corpus (the right to challenge an arrest or detainment). As war raged across America, Lincoln explained in a letter why he ordered the arrest and detainment of Congressman Clement Vallandigham of Ohio: "Must I shoot a simple-minded deserter," Lincoln asked, "while I must not touch a hair of a wily agitator who induces him to desert?"

Historians still debate whether Lincoln's actions were legal and proper. The exhibit points out the gray areas of Lincoln's constitutional choices. Echoes still resound in issues such as indefinite detainment, drone killings of U.S. citizens, as well as government surveillance of Americans conducted under secret legal interpretations.

Americans have come to accept some limits to rights, even those the Constitution says shall not be infringed. "The Constitution is not a suicide pact," wrote U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson, dissenting in a 1949 free speech case, perhaps thinking of Lincoln's time of national emergency.

More broadly, the edge of the Constitution still curls and cuts across life today. Does the so-called "privacy clause" used to defend abortion allow infringements? Can the federal government order an employer with religious objections to provide free contraception through the insurance he purchases? May citizens vote to ban state colleges from using Affirmative Action racial preferences?

It is fitting to have "Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War" at Adrian Public Library, given what Haviland and other local abolitionists did to fight the law for freedom. Presenting what Lincoln did gives context to our trajectory of freedom, equality and constitutional rights.

Mark Lenz, editor of The Daily Telegram, can be contacted at 265-5111, ext. 230, or via email at mlenz@lenconnect.com.